


The Law of Equivalent Exchange

by adietxt



Category: One Piece
Genre: Bittersweet, Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 04:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10482216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adietxt/pseuds/adietxt
Summary: To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.Sabo didn't lose his memory. Luffy gained a brother (and lost a swordsman, a cook, a navigator, a sniper — it's a slippery, slippery slope).





	

The boat is on fire, but Sabo remembers.

"I'm so glad," Luffy says, words sandwiched between tearful sobs and watery hiccups, "everyone said — everyone said you're dead —"

"You have to hide," Ace cuts in, and he isn't crying, but Luffy thinks it's only because he's already out of tears. "If they know you're still alive, they're going to," he stutters, and stops. He thinks of the nobles, of monsters lurking underneath overly-polished skins. "I don't know what they're going to do."

_Stay,_ Ace doesn't say, but they hear it anyways.  _Wait for us._

Sabo nods in silent agreement, wiping his own tears with the back of his hand.

Sabo hides, and lives, and remembers.

 

* * *

 

 

Luffy is seventeen when they set sail, together.

 

* * *

 

 

They arrive on a place called Shells Town. The first thing his brothers tell Luffy is to steer away from the marines, and the second, from the bounty hunters.

Ace points at a row of white towers, and says, "that's the place where the marines are. If you want to be a pirate, you can go anywhere but there."

Luffy pouts, and wears the expression of someone who would push a big red button labeled  _DON'T PUSH_ just because he can. "But what if I want to find some adventures?"

Sabo phrases his answer the way he knows Luffy would understand. "The adventure stops if you go there."

Luffy's eyes widen before he nods quickly.

Satisfied, Sabo goes to get them a bigger ship. When he returns, Ace and Luffy are being chased by the villagers for eating without paying, and they laugh all the way to their new ship. The grins stay on their faces even when the town disappears from the horizon.

As they sail away, Sabo tells them a rumor he heard in the marketplace — something about a famous bounty hunter from East Blue being arrested by the marines. Ace says that's unusual — bounty hunters are seldom seen as criminals — but good. One less of them to be concerned about. He's probably a useless one too, if he gets caught by weak marines from East Blue.

Luffy can't find a reason to disagree, but somehow does.

 

* * *

 

While Sabo would argue that most of the things taught by his parents are either useless or wrong, he admits that his navigation lessons are neither. Nor is the lessons on cooking and basic nutrients, if his cooking is to be believed — Sabo's food is well-prepared, filling, and efficient. Ace never falls asleep while eating Sabo's cooking. In Ace-Speak, that's a love letter written in pink, perfume-scented ink.

When they enter the floating restaurant, they are looking for a meal, but not a cook. Luffy cheers along when Ace claps excitedly for the strong chef who starts beating up an asshole of a customer, but he doesn't follow the chef through the backdoor, doesn't see him slide a plate of food towards a starving pirate, doesn't see his eyes light up as he says,  _have you ever heard of All Blue?_

A few days after the visit, there's news about a pirate attack.

_It's such a pity_ , Luffy thinks. He wouldn't tell Sabo, but the meal he had there was the best he'd ever had in his entire life.

 

* * *

 

 

A pirate ruined a country where cherry blossoms never fell. In another island, an empire of eternal sand fell to a civil war.

The Grand Line is unpredictable like that.

Luffy hears the stories and sometimes, in passing, he thinks of the adventures he could've had, there.

He looks at his brothers and decides that the one he's having now isn't so bad either.

 

* * *

 

 

"We've been doing well so far," Ace says as he lays down on the deck, facing the sky, "but if we want to survive the New World, we're going to need a couple more crew members."

"I agree," Sabo says as he plops down beside Ace, a thick old book Luffy can't even read the title of nestled on his lap. "It would be beneficial if we have more allies on our side."

"We're gonna need a musician," Luffy suggests cheerfully.

"I think we should recruit other positions before that," Sabo says, and sigh, but it's a fond one.

"We're gonna need at least..." Ace raises his fingers to count, "one, two... at least ten people."

"We're gonna need  _signficantly_ more than that," Sabo presses.

"I did say  _at least_ ten —"

"We're gonna need at least a few dozens —"

"Nine is good," Luffy suddenly says.

The two older brothers stop and blink.

"Luffy," Sabo starts, ever-logical and calm. But Luffy has made up his mind.

"Nine people," Luffy says, firm and steady, "are enough to pass the Red Line into the New World."

He doesn't know where his conviction came from, but as soon as the words leave his mouth, he knows it to be true.

Sabo and Ace share a look and shake their head, almost simultaneously, but they're smiling.

"That's Luffy for 'ya," Ace says with a huge grin, and Sabo closes his book.

"I guess we'll start with nine," he acquiesces, and Luffy gives them both a toothy smile, preening from their unspoken trust in him.

He'll let them do the recruiting though. If it comes to him, he'd probably end up recruiting, like, a cyborg. Or a talking skeleton. And that just won't do.

 

 


End file.
